Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely

Question

Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely accurate nevertheless advocate its expanded use in criminal cases, arguing that perfection in evidence  is not and never has been required, neither in science nor  in our courts.

A. is not and never has been required, neither in science nor

B. is and has been required not in science nor

C. is not and never has been required, either in science or

D. should not and never has been required, either in science or

E. should and has been required neither in science nor

SC16553

jayarora · Accepted Answer

B is incorrect: Evidence is and has been required (opposite meaning). 'Neither' is missing D is incorrect. It reads 'Evidence Should not required and never has been required'. Moreover, should implies moral obligation and that is not the intended meaning E Incorrect for same reasons as B and D A and C are close. I googled it. Neither indicates that the two ideas are linked together. It’s kind of like a negative conjunction. But if you use neither, then make sure your sentence does not have any other negatives preceding it. If you prefer to use a negative, then you want to use either. Jay had seen neither the snake nor the wasp’s nest on the next tree, and was preparing to stake his tarp in that less-than-safe location. Jay had not seen either the snake or the wasp’s nest on the next tree, and was preparing to stake his tarp in that less-than-safe location. Source: https://thewritepractice.com/how-to-use ... correctly/ C is the best choice.

ChiranjeevSingh · Answer

Here's the   official explanation   provided by the GMAC for this question:
 
This sentence reports some reasoning used by certain legal experts in defense of expanded uses of polygraph testing. These experts claim that such testing need not provide perfectly accurate evidence because: (1) perfection in evidence is not required in the courts, (2) perfection in evidence is not required in science, (3) perfection in evidence has never been required in the courts, and (4) perfection in evidence has never been required in science. All these relationships can be expressed concisely in a single complex phrase using negation and  either/or  or  neither/nor  constructions. Answer choice C uses correct grammar and standardly idiomatic relationships between  not  and  either / or .
 
 Option A:  The construction  is not  ...  neither  is ungrammatical. This sequence of words could make sense if  neither in science nor in our courts  is interpreted as an afterthought appended to the preceding phrase for emphasis. But if it is intended in that way, a dash instead of a comma would make the function of the phrase clearer:  perfection of evidence is not and never has been required—neither in science nor in our courts .

Option B:  The construction  is and has been required not  ...  nor  is ungrammatical.

Option C:  Correct.This is grammatically correct and uses the  either / or  structure correctly.

Option D:  In this structure, the auxiliary verb phrase  should not  stands alone and thus makes no sense. To convey the intended meaning, it needs to be complemented by another verb or verbal construction that could grammatically precede  required , such as  be  or  have been.

Option E:  In this structure, the auxiliary verb  should  stands alone and thus makes no sense. To convey the intended meaning, it needs to be complemented by another verb or verbal construction that could grammatically precede  required , such as  be .
 
The correct answer is C.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

NandishSS · Answer

HI  Bunuel   bb

I can see you posting questions under the source as GMATPrep. Are these new questions, which we are going to encounter in GMATPrep CAT?

AshutoshB · Answer

Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely accurate nevertheless advocate its expanded use in criminal cases, arguing that perfection in evidence is not and never has been required, neither in science nor in our courts.

A. is not and never has been required, neither in science nor

B. is and has been required not in science nor

C. is not and never has been required, either in science or

D. should not and never has been required, either in science or

E. should and has been required neither in science nor

SC16553

Show Answer

Official Answer

C

Bunuel · Answer

________________________________-
Yes.

NiftyNiffler · Answer

Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely accurate nevertheless advocate its expanded use in criminal cases, arguing that perfection in evidence  is not and never has been required, neither in science nor  in our courts.

A. is not and never has been required, neither in science nor  --"neither ... nor" makes it double negation by getting appended to previous negation (is not... never has been)

B. is and has been required not in science nor  -- dilutes the meaning.
 
C. is not and never has been required, either in science or  -- CORRECT, fixes the error from A
 
D. should not and never has been required, either in science or  -- "should" is not correct verb tense here. Legal experts are not talking about moral obligations of science
 
E. should and has been required neither in science nor  -- same as D

So, it should be  C

thangvietnam · Answer

Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely accurate nevertheless advocate its expanded use in criminal cases, arguing that perfection in evidence// is not and never has been required, neither in science nor// in our courts.

A. is not and never has been required, neither in science nor

B. is and has been required not in science nor

C. is not and never has been required, either in science or

D. should not and never has been required, either in science or

E. should and has been required neither in science nor

ellipsis is not hard but tricky. inferring the cut off part is the first job for ellipsis and comparison problems. 
in choice D and E, it should be 'should not be required'. but "be" dose not appear and the phrase is 'should not been required'. this is not grammatical.

the second point is about scope of negation.

in a clause, all parts following the negation word are affected by it. this mean, in choice C, all words following"not and never" are in negation scope. so, we use 'either in...." because this phrase is under negation scope. if we use "nor", double negation occurs. wrong.

but if we want to continue a negation for a second clause, we can use 'nor'

the class dont learn gmat tonight, neither dose gmat teacher come

a further point about scope of negation can be seen in the following example.

a perfect evidence is not required in any field, either in science or courts.
a perfect evidence is not required in some fields, neither in science nor courts.

in the first sentence, scope of negation is from after negation word to the end of the sentence. that is why "either..or" is used and we dont need to use negation words before 'science".

in the second sentence, 'in some field' is not under scope of negation. evidence is require in some fields but not in other. so, we have to use "neither ...nor" to negate "science and courts."

so, concept of " double negation" is not easy.

Basshead · Answer

It's between A and C: 'neither...nor' or 'either...or'

Neither indicates that two ideas are linked together. Its use represents a negative conjunction. In the given sentence, 'neither...nor' is not correct because we already have a negative preceding it.

arguing  that perfection in evidence is not and never has been required , neither in science nor in our courts.

The portion in blue is negative. Therefore it's more appropriate to use 'either...or':

Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely accurate nevertheless advocate its expanded use in criminal cases, arguing that perfection in evidence  is not and never has been required, either in science or  in our courts.

vv65 · Answer

The tags say this is a GMATPREP question.
Where can we find such official explanations for GMATPREP questions?

Posted from my mobile device

IvanGreene · Answer

The right answer’s C — it’s the only one that keeps the grammar smooth and the meaning intact. The rest either mess with the tense or use clunky constructions.

Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely

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Many legal experts who admit that polygraph testing is not completely

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